Adaptations of skeletal muscle that favour athletic ability

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Abstract
Extract The fundamental principles explaining how the athletic performance of some individuals regularly excels that of their fellows is of essential interest to the trainer and/or breeder of animal athletes, and to human athletes and their coaches. The identification of factors that favour enhanced athletic ability may permit the evolution of training and/or breeding programmes which may aim at mimicking the athletically desirable properties of superior athletes and be of maximum benefit to the athlete. Numerous factors influence athletic performance. Many of these can be assessed in the living being — such as the effect of exercise on cardiac, respiratory and circulatory function which have been reviewed by Åstrand (1956) Åstrand, P. O. 1956. Human physical fitness with special reference to sex and age. Physiol. Rev., 36: 307–335. [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar] . However, the morphological and biochemical properties of an athlete's propulsive machine — his musculoskeletal system — have not been studied extensively in relation to athletic ability. Therefore, skeletal muscle has now been investigated in relation to physical performance in two species, strains of which have been selected by man for athletic ability over a long period. This study describes some of the changes that have been produced by selection for this trait and, therefore, aims to describe athletic characteristics, by comparing the skeletal muscle of greyhounds and thoroughbreds with members of their species less specialized for athletic performance. The greyhound dog has been selected for swiftness for approximately 3000 years (Clarke, 1965 Clarke, H. E. 1965. The Greyhound, London: Popular Dogs Publishing Co.. [Google Scholar] ) and the thoroughbred horse for approximately 300 years (Willett, 1970 Willett, P. 1970. The Thoroughbred, London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson. [Google Scholar] ). Unlike man, who has not been selected for athletic ability, these animals typify extremes of their species and are, therefore, more suitable subjects for an investigation into athletic characteristics.